Sir Kenneth, who also directed the recent Hollywood blockbuster Thor, said he felt "humble, elated and incredibly lucky" at the award.

"When I was a kid I dreamed of pulling on a shirt for the Northern Ireland football team," he said.

"I could only imagine how proud you might feel. Today it feels like they just gave me the shirt and my heart's fit to burst."

Today's investitures will also see two British servicemen awarded the Military Cross for bravery.

Corporal Carl Taylor, from Birmingham, ran 80 feet across open ground under Taliban fire to rescue three terrified young Afghan children, using his own body as a shield as he carried the boys, aged between three and seven, back to their distraught mothers.

Cpl Taylor, of 3rd Battalion the Mercian Regiment, was a month into his tour of Afghanistan when the incident occurred on a joint operation with the Afghan National Police in the village of Popalzay in Helmand Province on March 10 last year.

Bombardier Mark Carpenter of the Royal Artillery will also be awarded the Military Cross.

Four firefighters from Nottinghamshire will be awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal, which is one level below the George Medal and awarded to civilians for acts of exemplary bravery.

Andrew Alexander, Sanjeev Mohla, Daniel Wareham and Matthew Willis, from Stockhill fire station in Nottingham, were awarded the medal for their actions after a major gas explosion at a house close to the fire station in June 2010 that left two people with dramatic life-changing injuries and destroyed the property.

They had left the station and were en route to another emergency call when the explosion happened in Stockhill Lane, just as they were passing.

They stopped immediately and went into the crumbling property to attempt to rescue the occupants.

Despite the dangers of further explosions and building collapse, they carried two critically-injured adults clear of the property and delivered them into the hands of waiting paramedics.

The family of a former British Army officer killed protecting a group of children from a charging elephant will pick up his Queen's Gallantry Medal.

Anton Turner, 38, was acting as expedition guide in Tanzania for a CBBC children's programme tracing the footsteps of explorer David Livingstone in Africa in October 2009 when he was killed by the animal.

His father, Major Timothy Turner, will receive the bravery medal awarded to his son "for facing a charging elephant in order to protect others", accompanied other members of his family.